Austin a Top 10 Bicycling City?

"A city like Austin is growing so much, cycling is
ruined there." Lance Armstrong [full quote]

Austin
Chronicle: "[The Austin
Bicycle Plan]
was adopted just over 10 years ago, and updated two years
later to
include detailed routes. Reading the plan without having
actually bicycled around town, one might guess Austin must be
a bike
utopia by now.

"Well, it's not. In many cases, biking to a destination
across town using a relatively direct route ranges from
difficult to
downright dangerous, and the further out from inner city
neighborhoods
you travel, the dicier it gets. Equally pathetic, over the
last 10
years, while the regional population (Travis, Hays, and
Williamson
Counties) has grown to more than two million, the estimated
percentage
of trips made by bike, according to the Capital Area
Metropolitan
Planning Organization, has remained at a dismal 1%.
Since May is
Bike
Austin! Month, it's a likely moment to consider the thus far
unimpressive local progress on improving biking facilities
and
opportunities, and what might or should be done about it."
(2006)

Bike-Friendliness
of
Selected U.S. Cities

Rank

City

Bikeability
Score

Population
Rank

1

Boulder, CO

86

~300

2

Minneapolis

79

48

3

Ft. Collins

78

163

4

Ann Arbor

76

229

5

Tempe

75

145

6

Eugene

75

150

7

San Francisco

70

14

8

Portland

70

29

9

Boston

68

21

10

Philadelphia

68

5

11

Madison

67

82

12

Washington, D.C.

65

25

13

Seattle

64

22

14

Tucson

64

33

15

New York

62

1

16

Chicago

62

3

17

Miami

57

44

18

Oakland

57

46

19

Los Angeles

54

2

20

Houston

49

4

21

San Diego

48

8

22

Austin

45

13

23

Pittsburgh

39

61

24

Cincinatti

37

64

25

Tyler, TX

38

~300

Bikeability
scores are from WalkScore.com
on 12/31/12. As of that date,
these are the only 25 cities that WalkScore has
calculated a
bikeability index for.

Austin is sometimes rated as one of
the
top bicycling cities in the America,* but it's a
reputation
that isn't really deserved.
In fact:

Austin gets a dismal Bike Score of 45 ("Somewhat Bikeable")
from WalkScore.com,
which ranks us a pitiful 22nd out
of
the 25 U.S. cities that it ranks for bikeability.

Austin doesn't
rank in the top 19
bicycle-friendly cities rated by the League of American
Bicyclists in
2012. (We're at the Silver level, where places #20-57
are all
lumped
together.)

Weak prosecution of at-fault
drivers. At-fault drivers in Austin
frequently get
weak to no penalties for hitting cyclists, even when the
cyclist dies,
or the driver was drunk, or both. Sometimes it seems
that the
best way to get away with running a red light in Austin is to
kill a
bicyclist while you're doing it. Here are tons
of
older examples and some more
recent
examples.

Not as many cyclists as thetop
cities
for cycling.
• Austin ranked in 120th place among 375 cities
for the
percentage of commuters who bike to work. (2010
Am. Community Survey)
• Austin ranked 22nd among the 70 largest cities
for the
percentage of commuters who bike to work from 2000-2010. (Am.
Community Survey)
• We're not
among the top 10 metro areas for percentage of people biking
to work. (2009
Census; Austin's explicit rank not listed)
• We rank an abysmal 57th
among
cities greater than 250,000 people for the percentage of
car-free
households. (2000 U.S. Census) • (However, Austin does have the
2nd-highest percentage of bike commuters (1.88%) among the
largest 15
cities in the U.S.) (Governing,
2011)

Cheating cyclists out of
voter-approved bond money, 1980s & 90s.
"In the
early
Eighties, voters approved almost $2 million in bonds to
implement the
Austin Bikeway Plan, which called for a comprehensive citywide
network
to include 160 miles of new bicycle lanes, and other policies
designed
to break down barriers to continuous cycling. The result,
according to
a 1993 report of the Austin Transportation Study: only 49
miles of bike
lanes were set aside, and of these, all but six are being used
for
parallel parking by motorists. Few of the other
recommendations of the
Austin Bikeway Plan were implemented, including bike route
signage,
provision of wide outside lanes on new road projects, and bike
lane
maintenance. Ironically, over half of the $2 million in bonds
approved
by voters was transferred from its intended use for bike lanes
to
pedestrian and trail projects. And, incredible as it sounds,
$368,000,
or about 20% of the total, went to fund the Veloway at Circle
C, a
facility that allows exercise-deprived suburbanites to burn
off the
accumulated stresses of week-day commuting by riding bicycles
around in
a circle on weekends." (Austin
Chronicle, 1996)

Cheating cyclists out of
voter-approved bond money, 2005-06.
"Voters passed
$150
million in transportation bonds in 2000 (Proposition 1), which
was
supposed to be spent at $15M per year for ten years, and was
supposed
to include bike projects. In March 2006, Councilmember
Raul
Alvarez asked the city to reveal how the money had been spent
so
far. The answer was that the first $67.2 million ALL
went for SH
130 right of way, and not a penny for any of the the other
things
promised to the bond voters on the ballot, including bike
projects! As a result of Alvarez' request, $10 million
was
proposed (with about $5 million so far for sidewalks). If you
read the Chronicle
article, you will see that $20 million
was being promised for bike and ped projects just before the
election." (Roger Baker, 2005-06)

Not enough biking trails.
The City's own survey showed that only
68% of Austinites are satisfied with the
number of walking & biking trails. (2009)

The first time Austin got a "top cycling
city" award, the Texas Bicycle Coalition [TBC] sent a
congratulatory
note
to the Austin City Council, commending them for their efforts
(below).
But really, what IS good about local cycling
really couldn't have been credited to the city council at that
point,
which had done nothing or even
worked against us far more often than they helped us.
Below is
the
congratulatory letter from TBC to the council, followed by a
critique I
sent to the council. None of the councilmembers responded
to
that,
except for Willie Lewis, who wrote only, "Thank you for your
information."

TBC's letter congratulating the City Council on Austin's
first Top Ten ranking

Dear Mayor and Council Members,

You are to be congratulated!

The latest issue of Bicycling Magazine ranks Austin in the
top ten of North American cities in which to ride. It is by
your work
and that of former City Council Members that Austin is the
bicycle
friendly city that it is.

The criteria for making the top ten includes the Yellow
Bike Project, bicycle racks, bike trails and an active bike
commuter
population. All of the things that the City supports. The
article in
Bicycling has a photograph of the city skyline and a great
photo of one
of the Yellow Bike Project members carting yellow bikes around
to be
distributed. Activists, commuters, recreational riders, racers
and
transportation cyclists all look forward to continuing the
tradition of
leading the nation in bike friendly action.

As President of the Austin Cycling Association, the largest
cycling organization in the area, I am proud to be able to say
Thank
You to each one of you.

Preston Tyree, President, Austin Cycling Association

Education Director, Texas Bicycle Coalition
Jan. 21, 1999

Michael Bluejay's response

From: Michael Bluejay

To: Texas Bicycle Coalition

Garcia, Gus - Austin City Council

Goodman, Jackie

Griffith, Beverly

Lewis, Willie

Slusher, Daryl

Spelman, Bill

Watson, Kirk-Austin City Council

CC: austin bicycle email
discussion list

Date: Jan. 24, 1999

Dear Councilmembers & Texas Bicycle Coalition:

If Austin is one of the Top 10 North American cities for
cycling, then that only demonstrates how terrible North
America is for
cycling and not how wonderful Austin is. Reviewing the
details, it
certainly appears that the City Council deserves more blame
than credit:

#1: PARKING IN BICYCLE LANES

It is legal for cars
to park in most bicycle lanes in the City. So why even
call them
bike lanes? If cyclists can't use them, then what's the point?
I
addressed the previous Council about this issue, but the
Council didn't
express any interest in addressing it. Eric Mitchell wrongly
stated
that it was already illegal for cars to park in bike lanes.
Gus Garcia,
Willie Lewis, and Bill Spelman's representative (Mike
Blizzard) said on
my radio program that they supported car-free bike lanes, but
so far
there's been no action from Council. Due to non-action by the
Council,
other bicycle advocates have been working with Transportation
&
Public Works to establish car-free bike lanes. But even if
they succeed
in getting cars banned from more bike lanes, another problem
that
remains is enforcement. I see cars illegally parked in the
bike lanes
in my neighborhood on Rio Grande and Nueces nearly EVERY DAY
[two of
the few bike lanes where it's already illegal for cars to
park]. The
police usually come if I call them about it, but they don't
take the
effort to ticket cars unless someone calls it in. On this
issue, the
council deserves blame and not credit.

#2: FAILURE TO FUND THE BICYCLE
PROGRAM

The Council has historically under- or non-funded the
Bicycle Program. Here's the opening from a late 1997 letter by
Rick
Waring, former Coordinator of the City's Bicycle Program:

"Dear Mayor Watson and City Council members: I am extremely
disappointed. The 1998 budget you approved has zero dollars in
allocations for bicycle and pedestrian program needs and
service
provision. Frankly, this is one of the reasons I resigned my
position
[as the City's Bicycle Coordinator]. We initiated and built
the program
without a budget for three and a half years. With the election
of your
progressive council, I was certain that finally City leaders
would show
their commitment and provide badly needed funding for bicycle
and
pedestrian access and safety. You did not, but I should not
have been
surprised; Austin has a long history of lip service without
real
commitment to bicyclists and pedestrians. Witness allowing
parking in
bike lanes and lack of maintenance of existing bicycle
facilities."
[The complete letter appears at the end of
this email.]
Here again, the council deserves blame and not credit.

#3: CREATING THE HELMET ORDINANCE
AND FAILING TO FULLY REPEAL IT

A couple of years ago the City Council created what was
probably the most unpopular ordinance in Austin history when
it enacted
the bicycle helmet ordinance. But the council didn't just
ignore the
will of the people, it ignored the facts -- that on average,
only 1-4
cyclists die in Austin each year, that some of those who die
were
wearing helmets ANYWAY, that many more pedestrians and
motorists die
than cyclists and THEY don't have to wear helmets, that
motorcyclists
are not required to wear helmets, etc. Disturbingly, the
council felt
it was more important to try to force the use of a piece of
equipment
that *might* help us once we've been hit rather than
PREVENTING US FROM
GETTING HIT IN THE FIRST PLACE (by getting cars out of bike
lanes, by
funding the Bicycle Program, etc.). Also disturbingly, the
council was
completely unconcerned that its local police was using the
helmet
ordinance as an excuse to arrest cyclists left and right and
throw them
in JAIL. (And for comparison, when was the last time you heard
of a
motorist being not just ticketed, but taken to JAIL for not
wearing a
seatbelt?) And despite the fact that at the time 70% of the
no-helmet
tickets given to kids were given to black & Hispanic kids,
the
council kept the helmet ordinance intact for kids when
amending it. An
advocate from the League of Bicycling Voters informed me that
councilmember Slusher refused a compromise on the helmet
ordinance
which would have kept the ordinance but removed the penalties,
since
Slusher insisted on having a punitive ordinance. I also
witnessed
Slusher misleading the citizenry at the helmet ordinance
hearing and
tricking them into giving up their speaking time, promising
that a
"repeal" was imminent, when in fact the council intended not
to repeal
but rather to amend, and kept the law intact for kids. Here
again, the
council deserves blame and not credit.

#4: POLICE HARASSMENT

I've lost count of how many cyclists I've met who were ARRESTED
for minor traffic infractions. Not just
ticketed, but ARRESTED. Just recently my friend Jennifer
Sigman was arrested and taken to jail for
riding her bicycle on
the sidewalk downtown. The police in this City have no
accountability to anyone. The council's compromise earlier
this year
was basically worthless since it did not provide for a
Citizen's Review
Board. This is a major failing of the council. Here again, the
council
deserves blame and not credit.

#5: MOTORISTS WHO HIT CYCLISTS
DON'T FACE CONSEQUENCES

About half of the serious car-bike
collisions in Austin are hit & runs. The council's
continuing
treatment of cyclists as second-class citizens only reinforces
that
same mindset in motorists and makes them unconcerned about
hitting or
even killing us. These hit & run motorists don't face any
consequences because nobody knows who they are and they're
never
caught. But even when the motorists are known, often nothing
will
happen to them. Police officers routinely fail to ticket or
charge
drivers who injure cyclists even when the drivers are clearly
at fault.
And even though the Tom Churchill case made it to a grand
jury, the
grand jury failed to indict the motorist although he was
clearly
at-fault. The council could set an example for the police and
grand
jurors by treating cycling and cyclists with respect, but
through
antagonistic action (e.g., the helmet ordinance) and lack of
action in
other areas (e.g., cars in bike lanes, funding for the Bicycle
Program), it helps foster the attitude that cyclists don't
matter. Here
again, the council deserves blame and not credit.

#6: THE YELLOW BIKE PROJECT

One of the reasons cited in the Bicycling article for
ranking Austin in the Top 10 was the Yellow Bike Program. Of
course,
the Council deserves no credit for this because the Yellow
Bike Project
is not a City program, it's a private non-profit organization.
And the
Council's helmet ordinance nearly killed the whole program
before it
even got properly established, with police officers arresting
people
who tried to use the free yellow bikes without helmets. The
Yellow Bike
Project was able to secure a shop space from the City in
exchange for
providing the City with bicycles for employees to use, but the
Yellow
Bikers had to go through a year of the City's red tape before
they
could actually move into the space.

#7: THE VELOWAY

After not spending money for nearly a decade which had been
authorized by voters to build bike lanes and make other biking
improvements, an earlier City Council threw most of that money
away on
the Veloway, a recreation & racing loop outside the (then)
City
limits, which does absolutely nothing to aid cycle commuting
in the
City.

Does any City Councilmember actually have any concrete
plans for addressing any of the above issues? I doubt it.

Former
Bicycle Program Coordinator Rick Waring's late 1997 letter to
the
Austin City Council

Dear Mayor Watson and City Council members:

I am extremely disappointed. The 1998 budget you approved
has zero dollars in allocations for bicycle and pedestrian
program
needs and service provision. Frankly, this is one of the
reasons I
resigned my position [as the City's Bicycle Coordinator]. We
initiated
and built the program without a budget for three and a half
years. With
the election of your progressive council, I was certain that
finally
City leaders would show their commitment and provide badly
needed
funding for bicycle and pedestrian access and safety. You did
not, but
I should not have been surprised; Austin has a long history of
lip
service without real commitment to bicyclists and pedestrians.
Witness
allowing parking in bike lanes and lack of maintenance of
existing
bicycle facilities.

In 1994 the City Council created the Bicycle Program
Coordinator position, but did not provide funding for the
position.
This forced the Department of Public Works and Transportation
to shift
funding to provide salary for the unfunded staff position. The
first
words the Assistant Director told me when I started the job
was "you
have no budget". I should have walked right out the door, but
I
thought, "This is April and next fiscal year we'll receive
funding." We
did not. In subsequent years, neither City management nor
Council
provided any program or service provision funding. We did our
best
"borrowing" from other budgets and using long-term debt bond
funding to
provide daily services, but this was grossly inadequate and a
fiscally
poor choice as well. Now all bicycle bonds are expended, yet
you
provided no funding for the program. How do you expect staff
to provide
services without funding?

To soften the blow of providing absolutely no funding,
advocates were told of a transportation retreat to be held in
October
during which reallocation of funds in the existing budget for
bicycle
and pedestrian needs would be discussed. Of course, this would
mean
"robbing Peter to pay Paul," but it would be better than
nothing. Now I
hear the retreat is postponed until December. December? Do you
really
plan to hold this retreat during the holiday season? I will
not be
surprised if the retreat is delayed again and may canceled
altogether.
I would ask when the Bicycle Plan, Part II will come forward
for
adoption, but without funding it hardly matters.

United States population is doubling ever 20 to 40 years
depending on the popularity of a allocation. Austin's is
slated to
double in 20. Since 1990, registrations of motor vehicles in
Travis
County exceeded population growth by three percent, yet the
City
Council lacked the courage to create a pedestrian staff
position.
Anyone who walks in Austin knows how much work is needed to
overcome
years of neglect and inattention. Anyone who has worked in the
Transportation Department knows there isn't enough staff or
resources
to do this job. And anyone who cares enough to examine recent
results
knows very little of long-accumulated pedestrian demand has
been
addressed. If it weren't for [the federal Americans with
Disabilities
Act], even the disabled would probably still be ignored.

I am encouraged by your efforts to support downtown
development in spite of the fact that this is an easy
decision;
developers stand to gain and no neighborhoods oppose the
increased
density. Nevertheless, those knowledgeable of what it takes to
preserve
a fine city are grateful.

Now make a tough decision. Via a budget amendment allocate
funding for bicycle and pedestrian services and make a strong
statement
of their importance to the vitality, health and future of the
city.
Please do not do this only in a surreptitious way by shifting
funding
within an existing budget &emdash; while this would help,
it does
not establish program funding nor does it publicly support
using
bicycles and walking for transportation.

I cannot know how tough your jobs are, but I have some
idea. I realize the pressure must be very intense and the
criticism
never ending. I applaud you for your courage and willingness
to serve.
While you have this opportunity, please take steps to
establish funding
for these badly needed services. Although I was able to secure
grants
for staffing and some program expenses for the present, grant
funding
is not likely to be available for staff or program expenses in
the
future. Thank you for your consideration of this request and
for the
difficult jobs you do.

Sincerely,

Rick Waring.

P.S. Please do not send this letter to City staff to write
your response. I would appreciate hearing from you about this
critical
issue. I know you are busy, but you can dictate a reply to
your office
staff and tell us what you plan to do, not what City staff
thinks you
plan to do.

[FYI: In 6/01, we learned that Rick Waring had become the
Bicyclist and Pedestrian Safety Program Manager for the Oregon
Dept. of
Transportation.]

Dan Connelly
critiques the bikability of part of Austin

Posted to the austin-bikes email list, 7-8-00

This evening I went from my apartment near 6th and West
Lynn, via Campell and 5th to Whole Foods on Lamar, from there on
to
Barton Springs Pool via Robert E Lee for a quick dip, then back
across
the Mopac bridge off Stratford to home. Simple, right? Hardly.
Consider
:

E. 5th: 3 lanes of heavy traffic. It's extremely
challenging to get into the right lane on this road, basically
forcing
one to ride along the left lane until one reaches the Baylor
light.
Hopefully a possible pending light at Campbell will help a lot
here.
Very poor riding.

Lamar to Whole Foods: Heavy traffic, very poor riding

Lamar to Barton Springs Road: Periodic high-speed
2-abreast traffic going under the tracks and over the bridge.
Extremely
poor riding. I passed a memorial to a dead pedestrian.

This ride, about the most basic thing one would want to do
around here, was strikingly unridable. It reminds me of the
Bicycling
assessment of Austin as a top 10 cycling city. Clearly the
editors
didn't do this circuit, or it would have made their other list.

Complete Lance Armstrong
Excerpt

Here's the complete excerpt about Lance Armstrong's remarks
about cycling in Austin, from the Austin American-Statesman,
8-4-01:

On Friday, he met with members
of the congressional Bike Caucus in Washington, lamenting
Austin's
lightning growth and traffic problems.

"A city like Austin is growing so
much, cycling is ruined there," he told U.S. Rep. Lloyd
Doggett,
D-Austin, and other members of the group. "In just 10 years
-- ruined.
A place like Boulder, Colorado, is just ruined, also."

2012: Bicycling.com
says Austin is #13 (out of 50) for
bike-friendliness of U.S. cities.2001: Bicycling
magazine ranks
Austin #2 of cities between 0.5-1.0 million people.
1999. LAB rates Austin as one of the Top 10 bicycling
cities in
North America in 1999.

This calendar is jointly maintained by us, Bike Texas, the Yellow Bike Project, City's Bicycle Program,
Bike Austin (not to be confused with us, BICYCLE Austin), and some individual volunteers.
The Austin Cycling Association didn't reply to our invitation.
If you'd like to help edit the calendar, then please let us know.

Another site by Michael Bluejay...

Magick Supplies from Natural Magick Shop. I'm not a follower of magick myself, but I set up this site for a friend, trying to make it exceptionally easy to use. I aggressively minimized the amount of clicking and scrolling it takes to get around the site, and to check out. If you want magic oils, deity oils, incense, dream pillows, massage oils, and the like, this is the place.